25 October 2007

This book put a smile on my face. The voyeur in me couldn’t put it down until I turned the last of its 120 pages. It's a breeze to read, and funny to boot.

I think its one of the best things I've read this year. It's just very entertaining & enjoyable. If summed up, the book shows little more than Joe talking to himself in his 1-bedroom dwelling, watching porn, and a few (real-world) conversations with his 2 cartooning friends Seth & Chester Brown.

But the way it's done is something else!

If you like R.Crumb’s self-loathing comics, then I daresay you’ll get a kick out of this book. I sure did. Joe’s first collection of ‘Peepshow’ (Called ‘The Poor Bastard’) collects his life with his ex-girlfriend, and as such shows a more gregarious lifestyle (Well... as gregarious as Joe can get). This collection (Spent), shows his life ‘after’ the relationship is over. He's alone, and aside from brief chats with a friend or two, is largely introspective and contemplative.

Joe's art & writing are refreshingly clean & simple. Though blunt & honest, Joe doesn't just point at the world and say "You are to blame!" - (far from it) - In fact he's constantly pointing the finger at himself. He recognizes that he's the reason for his lot in life, but knows himself enough to accept it. You get the feeling that Joe is his own 'shrink', and getting it out on paper helps him makes sense of it all. (Though publishing it for the world to see took some balls!)

'Spent' really is like reading someone’s diary. A beautifully drawn and funny diary. For the price, you really are getting a lot in a hard-bound and well made comicbook.

16 October 2007

While at the Armageddon Expo, I wandered over to the Local Act Comics (LAC) booth & said a brief hello to Mike Nason while he was sketching behind the table. Nice guy, and shares a similar interest to me in talking about comicbook craft & philiosphy. I made a brief mention about a recent forum thread in which Mike’s criticism was seen as ‘mean spirited’ – to which he replied that he should just learn to end online comments with a ‘smiley-face’ avatar to let people know he’s a nice guy.

I thought that was funny. And apt.

When someone puts up work on forums to be ‘shown’, then it stands to reason that there may be a minority of people ( Like Myself, Mike, or whoever) who may want to leave feedback on that work that isn’t simply ‘praise’. One need not denigrate the person (or work) to offer constructive feedback on it, but neither should they pander to (the all too common) ass-kissing display. Particularly if they have taken the time to look closely at someone’s work and write down a thought-out response. If the response is an honest opinion (rather than a direct insult to the work or person), then I’d suggest these ‘fragile’ posters refrain from publishing any work to the public what-so-ever.

Bobby.N

PS: To the above mentioned forum posting (to their credit), the poster wasn't offended, and took it in their stride - though a stampede of 'knights-in-shining-armor' posted to defend the person for no other reason (it would seem) - other than to mention that we should offer criticism in super-nice rhetoric. Because otherwise it "comes across as..." or "seems like..." (or some other emotional description) we're being mean.

15 October 2007

This expo was huge. Massive. Fun.... though I've never experienced being punched in the face by B.O, until this show. Some people really needed some Lynx Deodorant.

Some of the comicbook stalls. To the left was Minotaur, while to the right was Phosphorescent & LAC.

I shared a table with Darren Close (Publisher of Killeroo), who helped me with my sanity by having someone to chat to about comicbooks - because to our right was a StarTrek stand. Enough said.I also dragged Colin Wilson in for a chat behind our table.

The times I wasn't selling my books, I was inking my 'asteroid' double-page spread that i began a few weeks ago (2 posts down this page).

David & Philip's table with some traffic.

Jason Franks & Gary Lau were there selling their respective range of books. These guys are two of the friendliest comicbook authors you'll meet.

Henry Pop (Artist of The List). A guy who loves the starkness of black ink on white paper as much as I do.

The friendliest & hardest working Melbourne publisher David Cunning (with wife Lauren), were at the very impressive Local Act Comics booth. It was full (I mean FULL) of comicbooks & related material of local (and current) comicbook authors. LAC's only been around for a short time, but David's published more authors than the Australian comics scene has seen in a long while.

Ok, so onto what I thought of the show in relation to 'comicbooks'...

The problem (that I found as an independent comibook seller) was that the focus (or lack-thereof) of the Expo, was far too broad to work for a little fish like me. The theme was basically 'Pop-culture & Entertainment' which produced a hodge-podge of wrestling, video games, comics, tv shows, board games, yadda, yadda, yadda. If it could be entertaining - it was there. It was certainly a lot of fun (don't get me wrong) - but from a self-publisher's standpoint, it required more effort to get people's attention, & consequently make the event profitable. (ie. I earnt roughly the same amount at this 2-day Armageddon expo that I did at mid-year's Doujicon 1-day expo.) - which comes down to an event's narrower focus.

For publishers (like LAC, Phosphorescent, etc), I'd guess that the event suited them a little better. They're bigger, and have the variety, stock and merchandise to catch the average consumer's eye, as well as the consumer that is already into comicbooks.

Also, the Saturday was much better than Sunday.

Saturday had guest speakers that fell more into comics & movies, etc - and had a crowd mix of younger & more discerning people looking to see & buy specific things. The Sunday crowd, by comparison, had more Sci-Fi celebrities in it's guest speakers. It seemed like the crowd was a more 'generic' breed that came there to unwind and entertain the kids. Sunday seemed to be the 'Family' crowd. Mom & Dad taking their kids to enjoy things that 'buzzed' & 'popped'. Sunday definitely seemed like you had to hit people over the head with a mallet to get them to notice anything. It may have something to do with the general attitude people (including myself) have with Sundays - that you unwind on that day.

Anyway - I came away at least experiencing the event for the first time as a seller. I will probably do it again next year, though I might give Sunday a miss, or at least leave earlier (Like Darren Close did the smart arse.).

To qualify my take on the weekend - I made about $140 on Saturday, and only about $35 on Sunday. And by Sunday's end I was totally wrecked!

(Another late post) - but only by a few weeks. C'mon, give me a break?

There's not much new I can say about our monthly comicbook meets, other than its a joy to anticipate it coming up every 4 weeks. It's either good, or fantastic. It seriously gives me a warm feeling to know that like-minded esoteric individuals gather together (freely) in a supportive environment to offer help, insight & reviews of our comicbook fetishes.

The same faces are generally always there, as well as a few new faces every now-&-then. This shows to me that those that 'stick around' are serious (on at least some level) about this wonderful medium. The flipside of it is, that it also provides inspiration and confidence to hit your drawingboard with a re-energized vigor knowing that someone is hitting their strides, or have just given you an adrenalin hit by simply looking at the wonderful work they've done.

It really is like seeing "comicbook civilisation", while you've been in long periods of isolated writing/drawing. It gives you sanity & strength.

Long live the meetups!

The regulars.

Paul Bedford brought in 'proofs' for people to view in checking for any last minute edits he might make before next week's Armageddon & Supernova.

Ok, this post is going to be a 'belated' post, as I started this page a few weeks ago, but never got around to posting it up here. Im going to start posting only noteworthy pages that I'm doing from now on, rather than a lot of them progressively, so that people will get to see more of the final artwork in the actual finished comicbook rather than in 'drips' here on my blog.

Also, I helps me focus on the book, instead of updating this blog with previews of it.

Anyway, here's a spread of an asteroid field around Saturn I'm drawing.

Anyway, Im really busy this week. So rather than rush this image - I'm looking forward to inking this baby in at the forthcoming 'Armageddon' Expo which I'll be attending in a few weeks. It'll give me something to do in those long 2 days sitting behind the table staring at people dressed in StarTrek outfits.

I'll post the finished image after the Expo when its (hopefully) completed.